Boreas POV

"By the way, kid, you're single, right? Because I got a really beautiful granddaughter that I can introduce you to." Chris said

"Oh, I'm taken, I excused myself earlier to tell my girlfriend that I can't call her today. Besides, doing this in front of a dead corpse is not tasteful, can I join the investigation tomorrow? I have one more day of free time that I want to use on something useful."

"Elite class students have to return to their dorm by 9." the headmaster reminded

"Yeah, and a 100-year-old elf counts as a senior citizen, and yet you're still not retired."

"Haven't they told you not to bring up a woman's age?"

"Nope."

"And do I look like I'm liking your attitude?"

"And do I look like I give two shits?"

"Yeah, I like that attitude, you can accompany me, even I wouldn't anger that woman." Chris chuckled, "I can see why Wiles likes you."

"Well, since it's my duty to overlook the safety of my students, I'll stay too." the headmaster declared before pointing at me and Mari, "And you 2 are not allowed to share a bed, so she'll sleep in a separate room, I'll pay for it."

"Oh, thanks, we haven't been sleeping on the same bed though, it would be preferred, but my new cuddle bud is just too clingy."

"I am not clingy." Jett denied

"Then I'll sleep on the floor and you can have the bed."

"Why must you...what do the humans say...play hard to get?"

"Alright, floor it is."

"I was just kidding!"

---

As I was sleeping, I felt something closeby, an unwanted intruder, but I chose to continue closing my eyes and pretending to be asleep. And as they approached closer, I manifested a blade made of light and aimed it at the intruder's throat, and to my surprise, it was the same guy who gave me the card all that time ago. He then quickly cast this sound barrier over the both of us, making sure that no one else can hear us.

"You? Where have you been?"

"You have quite fast reflexes, those rumors of you studying under that old man seem to be true." he responded

"Uh, duh? So you recruited me and just disappeared when I wanted to join? What if I joined the royal mages or something?"

"Ooo, about that, it seems like there has been an incident within our organization, it's why we've been quiet for the past couple of years, you might want to wait 2 years until we get it all settled, but we should be slowly emerging out of the shadows again."

"So why are you here?"

"Well, I was here to find someone, we found them, and I noticed you were nearby...and we found another missing project of ours."

"Jett?"

"That's his name? Short and simple, I like it."

"Why'd you leave him to those dumbasses then."

"Simple, we had an unstable period, and no one would think that we'd hide such a rare creature with such weaklings, you should see the reaction of a colleague of mine when he found out that this dragon was lost."

"Oh, are you going to try and take him back?"

"Wh, not really, he's not that much of a prized possession, after all, he's a failure, well, not failure, more like a used product that's to be discarded anyway, you can have him."

"What do you mean?"

"I won't say much, but that dragon does not have the life span of an ordinary dragon, and I mean it in a bad way."

"You...siphoned his life span? Are you trying to achieve immortality or something?"

"Whoops, I've said too much, I'll see you next time, Boreas, it's been nice catching up."

"Tell me your name."

"Name...? Just call me the Velvet falcon."

"That's not-"

And he jumped out the window. Velvet falcon? What kind of stupid name is that...velvet falcon...tsk...but Jett...just what did they do to you? At least we know who captured him initially, Jett would be very opposed to my plans now since he very much wants revenge on the group that captured him, it's why he's following me, he knows that I can lead him to them, and we got the answer.

I should keep this interaction a secret for now, I'll tell Mari and Jett in a week and we'll see how it'll go then.

---

"Hey, I thought you said your parents were morticians, and I know for a fact that you can't just inherit them, so explain." Mari said as she snuck into my room the next morning

"I did?"

"Not clearly enough. Your parents clearly died when you were quite young, so how come?"

"Well, they left behind a lot of books, not only that, while they were alive, I interrupted them quite a lot, got a shock of a lifetime, and since I was in Detroit, at certain corners, you'll find a body or so, so I just brought them to my parents."

"Can't you just call the local authorities?"

"We don't have enough guys and so we at least find them and give them a proper burial, my parents then hand me some tips or so, like if I see a certain kind of corpse, don't go near it, cuz it must mean that it was a message from one gang to another."

"How do you know that the shirt wasn't yanked by the perpetrators?"

"Simple, the stretch wasn't that strong, it would suggest that he took a few buttons down, then it was ripped off of him, less stress on the fabric...there's also blunt force trauma on the right side of his head."

"There's seriously still many things that I don't know about you."

"I know, I'm just full of surprises."

"And so why did you try to piss the headmaster off yesterday?"

"Simple, now her head is full of me, and when I do a full 180...shock, surprise, and all the things about me will be imprinted in her head, she won't stop thinking of me."

"You are a scary man."

"Don't say that to your future husband, I have feelings too."

"All you got going for you are your looks and tricks, you're nothing but a conman."

"No, I call that my eccentric charms."

"Figures, but we'll discuss this further when the proper time comes, now we help with the murder case as best we can since the academy starts tomorrow."

---

"Did you even get any sleep?"

"Nope." Chris replied, "Anyway, based on his uniform, he's some sort of clerk, and so I just asked around for a missing clerk and then used his name and checked all inns and hotel registers in the red light district, interviewed the woman he was with for any useful information, none, but I did narrow the culprit down to 2 healers, they both have a howling dog, ones that can get that loud."

"That'll save us a lot of time."

"Based on what you said last night, you'd probably figure it out like I did, you just went to sleep, but I didn't, not that I mind, kids like you need sleep to grow, how tall are you?"

"168 cm, I was hoping to get to at least 180, but..."

Due to lazy writing, I'll just look like my past self, 176cm...damn.

"As my mother says, height doesn't matter, size does." he said

"I don't think that you should be giving that kind of advice to students." the headmaster responded, "Anyway, let's end this quick, I want to capture this culprit myself.

---

As I made my way through the deserted streets of the red-light district, seeing it being mostly empty is weird, but I guess that the business is better at night, and should make things easier.

"This one is it." I said as I arrived 

I could sense it lingering in the air, the smell of death, and this wasn't the peaceful kind, I could also smell faint scents of blood nearby, and when I checked a crack on the road, I saw a small splat of red, it was tiny, but...this is it. And looking through the window, the healer's office is very neatly organized with a lot of pictures of wolves.

The killer's traumatic childhood could have been marked by the haunting sound of a lone wolf howling in the distance somehow, and could it be that the howling was a manifestation of the killer's twisted memories, a way to relieve the pain and horror of their past? or maybe to spread that horror...?

That's not my job.

"Can I pick the lock?"

"You can pick locks?" the headmaster asked

"Of course, I can do many things."